Gertrude said. "It must be very interesting to know her.
I don't feel as if I ever could."
"Ah, you will know her well; you will become great friends,"
Felix declared, as if this were the easiest thing in the world.
"She is very graceful," said Gertrude, looking after the Baroness, suspended to her father's arm. It was a pleasure to her to say that any one was graceful.
Felix had been looking about him. "And your little cousin, of yesterday," he said, "who was so wonderfully pretty--what has become of her?"
"She is in the parlor," Gertrude answered. "Yes, she is very pretty."
She felt as if it were her duty to take him straight into the house, to where he might be near her cousin. But after hesitating a moment she lingered still. "I did n't believe you would come back," she said.
"Not come back!" cried Felix, laughing. "You did n't know, then, the impression made upon this susceptible heart of mine."
She wondered whether he meant the impression her cousin Lizzie had made.
"Well," she said, "I did n't think we should ever see you again. "
"And pray what did you think would become of me?"
"I don't know. I thought you would melt away."
"That 's a compliment to my solidity! I melt very often," said Felix, "but there is always something left of me."
"I came and waited for you by the door, because the others did,"
Gertrude went on. "But if you had never appeared I should not have been surprised."
"I hope," declared Felix, looking at her, "that you would have been disappointed."
She looked at him a little, and shook her head. "No--no!"
"Ah, par exemple!" cried the young man. "You deserve that I should never leave you."
Going into the parlor they found Mr. Wentworth performing introductions.